1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the workflow system which creates BP (business process) definitions describing the shipping routes and automates the circulation of the electronic documents by referring thereto, and in particular to the workflow method and its system which determine the destinations of the electronic documents to be delivered to a plurality of sites, by coordinating the BP definitions describing the shipping routes within the sites when the electronic documents are to be delivered to a plurality of sites.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the progress in office automation of the clerical works in recent years, attention has been drawn to the workflow system which provides an effective circulation of electronic documents among the personnel concerned. The workflow systems supporting joint works by groups of people are disclosed in "The Nikkei Computer" (May 2, 1994, Vol. 336, pp. 57 to 67). Workflow systems are also mentioned in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,499 "Controlled Workflow System", U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,026 "Apparatus for Distributing Data Processing across a Plurality of Loci of Control", and Japanese Patent Laid-Open 4-77030 (1992) "Electronic mail circulation method and the system thereof". According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,499, the electronic shipping documents are restricted to those stored in one server; it does not disclose a system to deliver the electronic documents stored in a plurality of servers. The U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,026 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open 4-77030 (1992) do disclose the system to deliver the electronic documents stored in a plurality of servers, with following restrictions:
(1) The shipping route must have been determined when the electronic document is created. PA1 (2) To modify the shipping route in the middle, the user is required to modify the shipping route on an interactive basis, using the route editor. PA1 (1) creating BP definitions featuring a high degree of completeness; and PA1 (2) ensuring easy BP definition management; whereas it has the disadvantages that: PA1 (1) ensuring circulation of the electronic documents decentralized in a plurality of sites by coordinating a plurality of BP definitions placed under decentralized management; PA1 (2) ensuring the compatibility of the connection interfaces for a plurality of BP definitions placed under decentralized management when creating BP definitions; and PA1 (3) providing the security function for coordination of BP definitions, thereby avoiding disturbance due to connection of illegal BP definitions. PA1 (1) generates at least one business process definition describing the entrance and exit of the shipping route of said electronic documents, and the shipping route for the terminals between said entrance and said exit; and PA1 (2) moves along the shipping route, based on the BP connection data showing the connection relationship from the exit of at least one generated business process definition to the entrance of one of the local and remote business process definitions. PA1 (1) generates at least one business process definitions describing the shipping route with respect to the entrance and exit of the shipping route of said electronic documents and also describing the shipping route of the terminals leading from said entrance to said exit, PA1 (2) stores inside said first subsystem the BP connection data to link among the business process definitions inside the first and second subsystems, and PA1 (3) delivers the electronic documents from said first subsystem to the terminals inside said second subsystem, based on said BP connection data.
In the prior art workflow method, the managing people of the workflow method have described the entire business process as one BP process.
This method has the advantages of:
(1) those creating the BP definitions are required to have the entirety of the business process to be defined; and PA2 (2) the BP definition managing people are different from those executing the business process described by the BP definition, failing to ensure timely maintenance of the BP definition in conformity to the execution.
In the large-scale workflow system, the business process to be defined is also large-sized, making it difficult for any person to understand it. Furthermore, there are a plurality of sites where the business process is executed, making it impossible for one person to manage all BP definitions. Thus, in large-sized workflow systems, it is preferred to make decentralized management of the BP definitions at a plurality of sites, and to deliver the electronic documents through coordination of these management works.